How often do you use the following to communicate with friends or family?

Anonymous App Usage May Be Less Than Reported

65%USE SNAPCHAT

4%USE WHISPER

2%USE YIKYAK

How often do you use the following messaging apps?YouTube and Netflix Own Video

97%USE YOUTUBE

71%USE NETFLIX

16%USE AMAZON PRIME

How often do you use the following to watch video?Pandora Dominates Music Streaming

77%USE PANDORA

31%USE SPOTIFY

31%USE IHEARTRADIO

How often do you use the following for listening to music?The Bottom Line
This fall, many 2014 grads will hit college campuses across the country, where they will share and adopt the latest apps and technology. The results of this survey shed light on the tech companies that have the attention of the next cohort of savvy users.

While some media outlets have reported teens tiring of Facebook in favor of whatever is the latest craze, Facebook still reigns number one in both total adoption and daily usage. Many other apps are seeing extremely high usage among 2014 graduates. YouTube possesses an incredible 97 percent adoption rate. Meanwhile, 77 percent of students that use Instagram log in daily. Netflix and Pandora dominate video and music streaming, with students showing a clear preference over competitors like Hulu and Amazon Prime in video and Spotify and Beats in music streaming.

While students favor a bevy of messaging apps to communicate with friends and family, the hype surrounding anonymous messaging apps may be just that—hype. Despite reports about anonymous apps like Yik Yak running amok at high schools, 97 percent of Class of 2014 high school seniors reported having never used the app. The same goes for anonymous secret-sharing app Whisper (95 percent reported the same). And while students aren’t flocking to these anonymous apps in droves, they’re also steering clear of the opposite end of the spectrum, with only 8 percent of students reporting use of professional networking service Linkedin.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the survey is the sheer volume of technology and media students are consuming and how widespread adoption is across popular services. Out of 50 popular apps and websites in the survey, 13 apps are used by more than half of all students, and a majority of those users are logging in daily, many multiple times per day. While it may be more feasible than ever to get widespread adoption, it may be more competitive than ever for the one finite resource in all of this—students’ time and attention.

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I notice this doesn’t include Steam. May not beat Facebook but I guarantee that it would rank pretty high in there. If Amazon Prime is considered a social media, Steam definitely deserves to be. Same could be said for other similar services like Uplay and Origin.